It's episode five of BOUNCE. It's our second season and it's all about the Golden State Valkyries' first year in the Bay. In today’s episode, we ask: What does the Valks’ arrival mean for the LGBTQ community in the Bay?
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Intro
HOST ERIN LIM: The Golden State Valkyries are officially with honors. The expansion team has, so far, played 21 games, and now they’ve received flowers for two team leaders.
ANNOUNCER: KT again, she's feeling it. And this crowd loves it.
Sound of crowd cheering
ERIN: Kayla Thornton, aka KT, received her FIRST all-star nod after a 10 season career in the WNBA. She also got to celebrate with her team.
KAYLA THORNTON: First, this goes to God. Thank you for trusting me, for taking a chance on me, for picking me. I’m just very blessed.
ERIN: KT will be the very first Valkyries player to be an all star and it looks good on her. If that news wasn’t enough to spark excitement for all of Ballhalla - Valkyries General Manager Ohemaa Nyanin delivered more good news in front of the team.
OHEMAA NYANIN: I have an announcement to make: The Valkyries went seven and four, 63% during the month of June, which included three wins by 24 points or more, and wrapped up the month with winning four out of the last five. So that would mean the head coach should get coach of the month.
ERIN: That’s right. The WNBA’s first Asian American coach, in her second month of head coaching with the first expansion team in 17 YEARS was named coach of the month in June by the WNBA. I already said it, but Natalie Nakase is a vibe, and it’s a good thing she’s on our team.
Get ready for the 2nd half of the season. Things are getting damn good.
Host Erin Lim and Reporter Kristal Raheem
HOST ERIN LIM: We’re nearly halfway through the inaugural season of the Golden State Valkyries and just a couple of weeks rested after a busy Pride month.
But that doesn’t mean we stop talking about the LGBTQIA community. This episode focuses on a homegrown retired WNBA player's story of hoop dreams, mental health, and finding their place within the W and themselves. It’s reported by Kristal Raheem who we have in the studio today.
ERIN: Hey, Kristal.
KRISTAL RAHEEM: It’s an honor to contribute to the BOUNCE series. As someone who didn’t grow up playing basketball, I can speak to how having the WNBA here is about more than the sport itself – it’s about community. Attending the games, meeting the fans, and doing this story with Alexis has been life changing for me. This story really gets into how sports leagues, in this case the WNBA, can be a catalyst for change at an individual and communal level.
This topic about identity and representation hits home for me. Like Alexis, who you’ll hear more about in the story, I work with Oakland youth. It’s so important for youth to have role models and to see people that look like them living out their dreams.
Righ now community support and representation is so important because this month the Trump administration is ending specialized support for young LGBTQ callers on the 988 national suicide hotline and taking out the T for transgender. While LGBTQ youth can still call the 988 hotline, they may not get someone who is trained to support their needs based on their identity.
Advocates are directing people to the Trevor’s Project hotline. It’s available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. You can Call us at 1-866-488-7386 or Text ‘START’ to 678-678.
ERIN: Thank you so much for highlighting this important and timely information, Kristal. Let’s get into your story.
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Story Transcript: The Power of the W: Identity, Representation, and Impact
Before the WNBA came to The Bay, it wasn’t that easy for young LGBTQ players to find a sense of belonging in the sport. On this episode of BOUNCE, we’ll hear from Dr. Alexis Gray Lawson as she talks about her journey to the W before Valhalla.
Sound of Valkyries crowd
REPORTER: It’s June and the Chase Center is packed with all kinds of fans excited to celebrate Pride month.
JUN GIRON : This is Balhalla, it's like an epitome experience.
Jun Giron is attending tonight's game alongside two younger women.
JUN: I don't know if it is the demographics or is it because it's like the month of June. It's like a cultural statement. This is the way I’ve experienced it. It’s almost like a nirvana experience. And this is my daughter and that’s her friend. That’s my daughter right there, Alexis. Huh? and that’s her girlfriend.
LEXIE: My name is Lexie. Honestly it’s super cool. I used to play ball honestly when I was growing up. Nice to see all these little kids. Going with their dads/coaches. Reminds me of me and my dad. Very nostalgic. It’s a family thing for me.
REPORTER: This is also a special night for lexie’s girlfriend, Autum Vecker.
AUTUM VECKER: We're walking around, we see a lot of queer couples. We're not alone here. Um, I think it's really dope. I could come here with my girlfriend, her dad, and have a great night.
REPORTER: Times are really changing. Before the WNBA came to the Bay, finding community in basketball wasn’t easy- especially for LGBTQ youth. But one girl beat the odds- Alexis Gray-Lawson.
ALEXIS: I was small, I was an underdog.
REPORTER: Alexis started playing basketball as a kid back in the 90s.
ALEXIS: Growing up in Oakland and just having the experience of there was just so many things happening you know. From there's crime there's violence all this stuff like that everybody always talks about Oakland but they never talk about the village.
REPORTER: With the help of her village, she became a force on the court.
ALEXIS: My stepdad was like okay, I'm gonna go outside and play with you like the whole summer. So it really was like outside getting up super early eight o'clock in the morning on a Saturday across the Street at the Park trying to get better.
REPORTER: That grind paid off and Alexis made her mark in high school. She became a top player, made the Parade All American team and helped lead Oakland Technical High School to back to back state championships in 2004 and 2005.
ALEXIS: It was like unheard of for an Oakland team to win a state Championship like that was not something that was normal.
REPORTER: To top it off, she went on to play ball at UC Berkeley. During her career, she became Cal’s all time 3-point leader and played in more games than any other player in the school's history. Now that’s town business.
But even in the midst of success, as a young Black lesbian woman, her journey came with challenges.
ALEXIS: People don't understand the things that you go through from your transition from high school being a small little high school athlete to them being at Cal. There's expectations that people put on you like, you need to do this, you guys need to win and so dealing with that.
REPORTER: As an athlete, Alexis identified as a champion, but she wanted to understand who she was off the court, too.
ALEXIS: The first time I had just kind of put a name to it cause it was kinda like you know you're different but there's no name for being different right. There's just like all these things especially I think growing up Black and being a lesbian in our community was very different. There’s like these different levels, these boxes that you gotta fit into and when you don't fit into those boxes you're kind of just out here. So for me, I was just trying to be true to myself and love whoever I was loving at that time. Especially back then there wasn't any like there was nobody that I could look to.
REPORTER: Aside from being a star player, she needed to be seen and heard on a deeper level.
ALEXIS: So I went through a lot of like mental health issues for sure in College and there was again no word for it at that time. There was very much like, you know, Coaches were like if you are having a bad day you gotta work through it.
REPORTER: Things started to change in 2010 when Alexis got drafted to the WNBA.
ALEXIS: Once I became a pro, there were more resources for sure. Like okay, oh you going through the same thing. Oh, that's cool, you know.
REPORTER: The W is known to accept players in the LGBTQ community. Back in 2001, the L.A. Sparks became the first professional team to recognize Pride month. The next year, New York Liberty's Sue Wicks, became the first WNBA player to publicly come out. And in 2012, Seimone Augustus with the Minnesota Lynx, spoke out at the WNBA finals about a proposed LGBTQ marriage amendment.
Now the WNBA’s newest team is in The Bay. At a press conference before a recent game, I had the chance to bring up what that means with coach Natalie Nakase.
This month the team has celebrated Juneteenth and Pride. Given that the Bay Area has a strong history of activism and trailblazing, what do you want the Valkyries to be known for in terms of social impact?
NATALIE NAKASE: Hmm, that's a good question. I'm all about inclusivity and I'm all about acceptance, and all about allowing people to be themselves. I'm really big on that and I could feel that when I walk in, you know, to the arena. When I walk into our, when I'm here at the Bay, I feel so much culture mixed together and to me it almost feels like I was accepted the minute I landed here.
REPORTER: While the WNBA has been a safe space for many, it’s not perfect. There’s been debate over the years about the league and the media focusing too much on sexuality. Former Players like Angel McCoughtry, have raised these concerns. She shared her thoughts during a SLAM NBA interview.
ANGEL MCCOUGHTRY: Everybody has categorized the whole league as everybody's gay in the WNBA and they look like boys, and they're manly. No, everybody's their own individual person. And why are you judging a sport on a sexuality?
REPORTER: Even as someone who is open about her sexuality, Alexis Gray Lawson resonates with Angel.
ALEXIS: I think Angel's idea was like let's Celebrate that we got moms. Like we don't celebrate moms in the W at all like let's just be real. Like there's no big mother's day tributes. I would say like a good chunk of people have kids on the teams right like there's no celebration of that. I feel like there's just so many other things to celebrate about athletes. There's so many people giving back to the organizations there's some that're going back to get doctorates. There's just a lot and I feel like for whatever reason there is a huge focus on sexuality which is not necessarily a bad thing but I do think that there needs to be a lens from a different side as well.
REPORTER: To that point, Alexis is a mother and she earned her doctorate. Now she’s an educator and the Athletic Director at her alma mater, Oakland Tech- Giving back to the same community that made her who she is today.With the help of her wife, she founded LEGACY, a program to support Black girls in athletics and beyond.
ALEXIS: So I created this curriculum at tech that really helps build the foundation for little young black girls to figure out who they're gonna be and how they're gonna show up.
REPORTER: It’s a full circle moment for alexis. Despite the challenges she had growing up, she sees a positive shift with the youth that she works with today.
ALEXIS: This generation is gonna be the ones. I would say that they are probably the most welcoming group like they are very good about pronouns. Like they be on it and they like hold you accountable. I think representation has helped that for sure but I think this next generation kind of will do a wraparound because we’re all around it all the time. I think it’ll be fine with this next generation coming in for sure.
REPORTER: Back at that Valkyries game, that shift is happening for people like Jun Giron — the father who attended the game with his daughter and her girlfriend. After our initial conversation, he stopped me and wanted to make a correction about something he said.
JUN: May I add something?
REPORTER: Sure.
JUN: You know, one thing that I’ve really learned from this adventure with this lovely couple. Which has been really great to me all week- cultural sensitivity. I go in and Introduce my daughter and then side by side just like a friend. That’s wrong. I should say it’s her girlfriend. It’s a learning process. And I think I'm going to be better next time.
REPORTER: Alexis’ journey and Jun’s experience are testaments to the power of sports and the importance of community. Having the Valkyries here is about more than basketball- it’s about the Bay Area having a new space to learn and grow, on and off the court.
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Trevor’s Project hotline: Call us at 1-866-488-7386 or Text ‘START’ to 678-678 — Phone lines are open 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week.